worth the wait (to give you my heart)
by Tarafina
Summary: Being in a friends-with-benefits relationship with Bucky was supposed to be easy, but then Darcy had to go and fall in love with him.
1. Chapter 1

**title**: worth the wait (to give you my heart)  
**category**: mcu; thor/captain america/avengers  
**genre**: romance/drama/humor  
**ship**: darcy/bucky  
**rating**: nc-17/explicit  
**prompt**: friends with benefits, and then feelings happen - **anonymous** (Tumblr)  
**word count**: 7,032  
**summary**: Being in a friends-with-benefits relationship with Bucky was supposed to be easy, but then Darcy had to go and fall in love with him.

**_worth the wait (to give you my heart)_**  
-1/4-

Darcy's back arched up off the bed, her eyes squeezed shut. Pleasure rippled through her; not enough, just waves of it came and went too quickly. Her heels dug into the mattress, while her hand gripped his hair, tangling it around her fingers. She was having trouble remembering to breathe; her lungs burned and the noises coming from her throat were left strangled and cracked.

He lifted his head from between her thighs, his lips wet with her, his breath a little labored. "You good?"

Panting, she glared down at him and gave his head a nudge. "Don't ask questions you already knows the answers to," she huffed.

He laughed, turning his head to suck and nip at the trembling skin of her left thigh, the stubble on his chin teasing her.

"I swear to God, Bucky…" She bit her lip, her chest heaving a little as she sucked in gulps of air. "Do _not _tease me."

"I don't know. This is my favorite part…" He rubbed a hand over her stomach in a gesture that was meant to be soothing, but the heel of his palm and the pads of his fingers were callused and the scrape of them made her toes curl. A whimper left her that she closed her eyes against even as she rocked her hips more than a little desperately. He swept his hand up her stomach, fully aware of what it was doing to her, and licked a stripe to her hip bone, scraping his teeth over her skin lightly.

His bionic hand was cupped under her thigh and he pulled it open a little further as his other hand finally reached between her breasts. His fingers were quick to work the front-clasp open, his palm sliding over the peak of her breast and cupping around it. She covered his hand with her own, squeezing. His fingers spread, overlapping hers as they fell into the spaces between and curled around them, stroking slowly. He rubbed his thumb in slow, teasing circles atop and around her pearled nipple and she arched up into the sensation.

Bucky shifted himself higher, his mouth leaving wet kisses over her stomach, nose nuzzling her, bionic fingers kneading the underside of her thigh. She stretched a hand down and buried it in his hair, giving it a light tug. Not of admonishment or even to direct him, she just knew he liked it when she played with his hair. Point in fact, he gave a little grunt, his hand spasming around her breast.

She both loved and hated this part, this right on the edge, slow down and enjoy it part, where instead of just getting her off and getting right to the good part, he took his time. It wasn't always like this. In the very beginning, some eight or so months ago, the need and tension had been so high, she'd barely have time to salvage her underwear before they were fucking against the wall or on the counter, his face buried in her shoulder and his arms wrapped tight around her, no space between their bodies. It had only been about relieving stress back then. Technically, it still was.

Friends with benefits. What an oversimplified term for it. But that was what they were, outside of her bedroom, or whatever closet he'd dragged her into, or that one time on her desk, after hours. The point being that they were not in a relationship. They were really good friends, who occasionally (regularly) had sex, and were able to separate any personal feelings from the equation. Or he had been. She was on the fence about that of late.

It was supposed to be easy. And, in a lot of ways, it was. The chemistry was there, the passion was constant, and it didn't take much more than a few words to get her to drag him to some dark corner. Their relationship behind doors was only supposed to be stress relief. They both had demanding jobs, her working under Coulson as the new Director of SHIELD and him partnering up with Steve on various high-risk missions that she sometimes wished she didn't know so many details about. The problem with a friends with benefits relationship, at least the problem with _theirs_, was the friendship part. Being his friend wasn't hard, it was easy. Long before they started sleeping together, she'd considered him one of her best friends. The problem she was having was that, outside of 'benefits' time, friendship meant spending non-sexual time together. It meant hanging out, talking, sharing their lives with each other, and quicker than she liked, those lines were blurring for her. Actually, no, they were already blurred. Severely blurred. As in, she was pretty sure she was in love with him and this whole 'not having a relationship' thing was really starting to take its toll.

They set down rules in the beginning. No sleeping around with anybody else; if they wanted an itch scratched, they had each other. No sharing private details with anybody else, lest their opinions try to color things. There were a few others, but frankly she couldn't remember much when his hand slid up her dress and did its absolute best to make her come twice before she took off one stitch of clothing. But the most important rule, and she remembered this one, was that if anybody wanted out at any time, just say the word and they would go back to being friends without benefits, no hard feelings. And she was pretty sure he could do that. Because when it came to acting like there was nothing else going on between them, he'd long mastered the ability. In public, she was just Darcy, one of his best friends, who could find a pop culture reference in anything and whose favorite pastimes were avoiding physical labour and finding any reason to drown out the world with better music.

They'd bonded two years earlier when she made him homemade soup and offered to brush him up on the last seventy years' worth of history. Since she had the Steve seal of approval, he'd relented, even if he barely spoke and always looked irritated. Darcy was persistent and she eventually broke through the hard shell, doing her best to make him smile and loosen up. And two years later, she'd accomplished that in spades. He still had his issues and he was by no means the friendliest Avenger, at least not to anybody he didn't know, but to those he did, he was loyal, protective, and could let down his guard. It wasn't such a rare sight anymore to see him laugh, to see the way that lopsided grin made his whole body seem lighter.

She thought she was doing a pretty good job of keeping her feelings separate from the situation. He was her friend and he was also incredibly good in bed. Those were simply facts. While she didn't have first-hand experience, she was sure the same could probably be said for Steve. She and Bucky had a playful friendship and it translated well in the bedroom, implicit trust meant leaving insecurities at the door and just enjoying each other. And she loved that. Except sometimes those nights felt a lot more intimate than just sex. And they were getting more frequent. There were nights when he could spend hours just kissing her, from head to toe, his hands mapping out every inch of her body, his fingers combing through her hair and dragging down her back. It felt… _reverent_. In a way nobody else had ever been with her. That feeling was intoxicating. She found herself wanting it more and more, all the while knowing she had no right to ask for it.

Like tonight.

So, while he was mouthing kisses up her side, she slid her hand down his neck and squeezed his shoulder, stopping him before his mouth could wander farther. Taking the hint, he ducked back down between her thighs and set his mouth to work again. Bucky had a lot of great qualities, and physically, there was a lot to gawk at and appreciate, the bionic arm included. But if she had to pick a favorite physical part of him, well, okay, it was his smile, and his eyes, and then his cock, but his tongue was still very high on the list.

He ate her out like it was his mission and failure was not an option.

One hand gripped his hair while the other held tight to the sheet beneath her, fingers clenched so tightly they hurt.

"Oh fuck. _Fuck, fuck, fuck_," she muttered, closing her eyes and letting out a loud, desperate noise as his tongue stroked around her clit, flicking it before swirling away.

His hand left her thigh and slid beneath his chin, one finger sinking into her, starting a slow in and out motion, building in speed and depth. His teeth gently teased over her, tongue stroking right after. He shifted his own hips, getting his knees up under him, and muttered something in Russian under his breath. She hated when he did that, but before she could ask him what he'd said, a second finger joined the first, crooking, and thought spiraled out of reach. His tongue focused back on her clit and her breath caught in her chest as she arched her hips toward the relentless flood of feeling. Between his tongue and his fingers, she was just a mess of clawing fingers and needy noises. Her orgasm crashed over her, tightening every muscle before releasing completely, leaving her in a limp, happy mess, air rushing back into her lungs and legs trembling, sweat beaded on her skin.

He was kissing up her stomach again, but this time she welcomed it, a blissed out smile curling her mouth as she struggled to catch her breath.

"I love…" She felt him pause, his hand squeezing around her hip, "your tongue. I ever tell you that?"

He let out a faint laugh, no doubt full of relief that she hadn't gone a different direction with that sentence. "Yeah, you've mentioned it," he said. He rolled to his side, an elbow on the mattress, and smoothed a hand down the outside of her thigh, gently squeezing behind her knee.

He spent a few minutes just like that, while she tried to catch her breath. His fingers slid down her thigh and over her hip, skimming up her side to that spot on her ribs that he knew was ticklish. She squirmed, making an irritated noise, but it only made his mouth turn up on the side. She shifted, pulling the straps of her bra down her arms and yanking it out from beneath her to toss in the direction of her laundry basket.

Stretching her arms back, she pulled her hair up and tucked her arms under her head. Her eyes fell closed for a moment, until she felt his fingers stroking over the pressure marks her bra had left behind on her skin. His touch was light, his thumb stroking side to side, and she opened her eyes a little more just to watch him. His hair was a mess and his skin flushed, his gaze focused on the movement of his fingers on her skin, something soft about the expression on his face, relaxed and comfortable. Sometimes, in moments like these, she wondered if she was the only one who let her feelings get the better of her. But hers was not a life romantic comedies were based off of.

In the beginning, it had been an easy decision to make. Finding time to date outside of SHIELD had never felt like a realistic option. There was the whole 'lying from the first hello' element, but there was also the 'can I trust you or are you a HYDRA spy?' issue, too. Darcy wouldn't be fooled into being the downfall of the Avengers. So it was down to either dating in-house or reaching into her bedside drawer for some relief, and while many of the agents working at SHIELD had been properly looked into and approved of by both Coulson and Natasha, Darcy was still a little leery of trusting any of them. Which narrowed her dating pool to the Avengers, most of whom were already taken or not her slice of pie. She liked all of them, but there was something distinctly non-sexual about her feelings for most of them.

All but one, actually, and he didn't like to call himself an Avenger, still a little too jaded about his own history to think he could play on the side of the heroes. But that didn't stop Bucky from joining in when there was a call to arms, even if he said he was only going to make sure Steve didn't get his reckless ass killed.

She assumed his reasons for starting up this no-strings attached thing with her were the same as hers. He didn't trust easy or often and that left his options for dating small. So instead they decided to see how well their friendship translated in the bedroom and it was… explosively good. For a man who spent too much of his time in cryo-sleep and still had a few memory gaps the size of the Grand Canyon, he never hesitated in bed, aware of what he liked and always happy to take direction in finding out what she enjoyed. So the sex was great, their friendship was awesome, and her feelings were… growing exponentially at a rate she had no control over.

Logic told her it was time to jump ship, pull the plug, and call it a day on the best sex she'd ever had. Her completely illogical heart, and entirely too dependent-on-orgasms body, nixed that. But it was getting harder. He was staying longer, sleeping over instead of showering and taking off before the sheets had a chance to cool. Lingering in bed, mouthing kisses down her sides or her back as she dozed beside him. Cuddling up to her, arms loosely wrapped around her body, until the sun was just starting to peek through the windows, and then he would untangle himself from her, drop a kiss to her hair, and leave before the new day could really start with the both of them.

She wondered what would happen if he managed to actually sleep through sunrise. If he would freak out about staying over or if he'd just get up, have a cup of coffee, and spend the morning with her in bed. But he never did. He might stay a while longer than usual, enjoying the comfort a warm body beside him could provide, but he didn't want more than that. And she had to accept that. That was their deal. _No strings_.

So, as per usual, she put an end to the gentle affection he was showing her and reached for the drawer of her bedside table, grabbing out a condom.

It was time to get back to business as usual.

* * *

Robert from accounting was flirting with her again.

He was a nice guy, for the most part. She was pretty sure he flirted with anybody who gave him the time of day, but it was nice sometimes, to be reminded that she was attractive and wanted. She'd never take him up on his many offers for dinner or coffee or blowing some steam off at the bar some night. But she didn't mind a little harmless flirtation as she picked up or dropped off some papers for Coulson.

Darcy left Robert's office and took the elevator back up to Coulson's floor, waving at a few familiar faces as she went. She took her time, though. Coulson had a meeting with Barton and Romanoff that she was not invited to. No skin off her back. She liked them both, but being around when they were debriefing, or being talked to about some specific detail of their latest mission that didn't follow protocol, was not her cup of tea.

She was walking down the hallway when she bumped into Steve and one of the newbie agents he was training. It seemed like everybody was training somebody these days, but whenever she asked Phil for a minion, he just rolled his eyes.

"Darcy, hey," Steve greeted, sending a friendly grin her way. "Coulson's still in with Natasha and Clint," he warned, motioning a thumb over his shoulder.

She shrugged. "Gives me time to stop by the canteen for a snack and a coffee refill then. Where are you headed?" she wondered.

"Same place," he said, motioning for her to walk ahead. Such a gentleman. She grinned up at him and turned on her heel to walk at his side. At a cleared throat from behind them, Steve looked back and said, "Oh, this is Junior Agent Clark. Clark, this is Darcy Lewis; she assists Director Coulson."

"Assists him in what?" Clark wondered.

Darcy looked over at him, giving him a quick once-over. Tall, though most people appeared that way thanks to her height disadvantage. Brown hair that swept across his forehead, enough stubble to be attractive and not unkempt, and blue-green eyes. Not bad. Solid 8.

"Drowning in paperwork and fake diplomacy," she answered him.

"Ah, full time job then?"

Her shoulders lifted slightly. "Only when I'm breathing."

He chuckled, grinning over at her. "So you've been at SHIELD a while?"

"Post-Cap blowing it up, mostly." She elbowed the man beside her lightly. "I knew them beforehand, but I had a different job then, and wasn't their biggest fan."

Clark's brows furrowed curiously. "What changed your mind?"

"The pay," she answered, smirking.

He laughed again. He had a nice laugh, and a smile she could appreciate.

"What's your first name, Clark?"

"Matthew. Well, Matt. Only my mom calls me Matthew, and usually when she's telling me I'm too old to still be dating and need to settle down."

"You look a little young for that…" she mused.

"Twenty-three, ma'am." He grinned boyishly. "Not _too_ young."

Her brow arched, but before she could say anything in return, a cough caught her attention and she turned toward Steve. He didn't say anything, however, and a few steps later, darted ahead to push open the door leading into the canteen, holding it open for her.

She hadn't realized how far they'd walked and stepped through, knocking her knuckles against Steve's chest as she went. "Don't tell me that super serum is falling down on the job and you're catching a cold… I have a home-made soup that'll help. Say the word."

Steve smiled down at her gently. "I think I'm fine, but I wouldn't say no to one of your soups anyway."

"You cook?" Matt asked, drawing her attention back to him.

"Only when I have time off."

"Or when someone needs cheering up," Steve reminded.

"Or that," she agreed.

Steve's hand found her elbow and guided her forward, toward the counter of fresh made muffins and the steaming pot of coffee. Darcy hummed appreciatively and took a carrot muffin for herself and a blueberry for Coulson, adding them to Steve's tray before pouring herself a tall mug of coffee.

"You buying, Cap?" she asked, looking up at him from under her eyelashes, pulling her most innocent look.

He chuckled under his breath.

"I can get it," Matt offered.

Steve glanced over at him, frowning.

But Matt just smiled. "I don't mind."

"I was only teasing," Darcy said, waving her hand. "Trust me, I'm a modern woman, I can pay for my own mid-morning snacks."

They stopped at the front, Steve's tray a lot more crowded with what he planned on eating, which, at that volume, could no longer be added under the title of 'snack.' After paying, Darcy took her muffins and coffee with her and waved her fingers in farewell before she left. She hoped Phil was finished up with the Wonder Twins; she had some work she needed to get out of the way if she wanted to have any kind of weekend.

* * *

Thankfully, Phil's office door was open, which meant she was free to barge in as she pleased; or that was what she'd always taken it as. He was on the phone when she walked in, so she put his blueberry muffin in front of him, winked when he gave her a thumb's up, and poured him a cup of coffee from his private machine before making her way back to her own desk. After that, it was work as usual, with a late lunch break, and a whole lot of paperwork to slog through.

By the time five came around, she was still finishing up a few things when the door opened. She was expecting Maria, whose day never ended and who always had something to discuss (or complain about) with Coulson. "He's finishing up with a Senator who shall remain unnamed, half because I've forgotten their name and half because I don't like any of them, so the name I do give them will be unflattering, and Phil has ears like a fox."

"While it'd be amusing to hear what name you came up with, I wouldn't want to get you in trouble."

She paused, looking over from her computer then, and sat up a little straighter. "Agent Clark," she said, her voice raised a pitch in surprise, and not a little confusion. "I'm sorry. I don't have you scheduled to see Coulson… Is it important?"

"No, uh…" His brow furrowed and he stepped further into her office, letting the door close behind him. "Actually, I wasn't here to see the Director. I was… I know this is a little forward, but Captain Rogers had a lot of great things to say about you and, after meeting today, I thought you might be interested in getting coffee." He shifted his feet, lifting a hand back to rub down his neck. "I don't know if it's because of what happened with SHIELD before, but I'm finding it a little hard to make friends, so…"

"Yeah, they're a little more suspicious of outsiders now, for good reason," she admitted.

"Oh, I don't blame them. Makes sense. I just… I guess I was hoping since you were a familiar face and you seemed to know your way around here, you might be able to give the new guy a few tips on how to make friends."

"Generally it's just proving yourself…" She sat back in her chair a little. "You come in, do your job, they'll loosen up eventually… _Hopefully_."

He half-smiled, nodding. "Sure. I can do that."

"About the coffee—"

He perked up a little.

But anything she was going to say was stalled when the door opened again. It wasn't Maria this time either, and Darcy suddenly felt like her office was getting a lot more traffic than usual for the end of the day.

Bucky stepped inside, taking up a lot more room than Matt was. In fact, he seemed to be taking up a lot more room than he usually did, but she chalked that up to the fact that he didn't know Matt and, therefore, didn't trust him. Which was why his intimidating face was on rather than the half-grin she was used to.

"Hey," she greeted, her voice a little softer. "What're you doing down here? I thought it was boy's night; Darcy's not invited, even if she schools all your asses in poker."

His mouth twitched as he dragged his hard gaze off of Matt and looked over to her. "Change of plans."

"Mission?" she wondered, brow furrowed. "Nothing's come down the pipe that I know of…"

He shook his head. "No, Sam cancelled. He's… got a _date_."

Darcy grinned, her brows raised. The only person Sam had been interested in of late was Natasha and they'd been playing their game of cat and mouse for some time. Looked like someone finally gave. "No way, that's awesome." She reached for her cell phone then and sent off a quick text: _Congrats, wings! Have fun tonight!_

Dropping her phone back down, she clicked through a few things on her computer, saved what she was working on, and closed it down. She reached under her desk for her bag and stood then, glancing over at the two men, who were lingering silently. She looked between them and hooked her bag over her shoulder.

"Uh, sorry, my manners suck. Matt, this is Sergeant Barnes, Steve might've mentioned him. Bucky, this is Junior Agent Matt Clark," she introduced. "He's working under Steve."

"He did. Uh, mention you, I mean. It's an honor to meet you, Sergeant," Matt said, tipping his chin in greeting.

Bucky glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. Instead of replying, he looked back at Darcy, brows raised.

She rolled her eyes at him and turned to Matt. "How does Monday sound? We can meet in the canteen."

"Or Starbucks; there's one just around the corner," Matt suggested.

"Pretty sure there's one on every corner," Darcy mused.

He nodded, frowning a little. "Right, true, uh…"

"We'll figure it out on Monday," she suggested, putting the last of her paperwork away in a filing cabinet.

"Okay, sure, that… sounds great." He smiled at her, raising a hand to wave, and then reached for the door. She noticed how careful he was not to get too close to Bucky, though, who purposely remained exactly where he was standing, giving Matt little room to maneuver around him.

When the door closed again, she looked over at Bucky. "Was that necessary?"

He shrugged, his face passive.

Darcy sighed and then turned on her heel, ducking her head into Phil's office. "I'm done for the day, Bossman. Haven't seen Maria yet, but I'm sure she's on her way."

"All right. Have a good weekend, Miss Lewis," he told her. "I'll call you if there's even the smallest world-ending problem to be dealt with."

She laughed. "You'll call me when you run out of coffee."

"If it makes you feel better it's only because you make it so much better than anybody else," he offered, smiling to himself as he thumbed through some papers.

"It's all in the wrist," she joked, before waving a hand and stepping back out.

Bucky was waiting, her jacket thrown over his arm. "Ready?"

Nodding, she crossed the room, reaching for the door while his hand fell to the small of her back. He kept pace beside her, oddly quiet, mouth set in a serious frown.

"You bummed Sam cancelled?" she wondered, looking up at him curiously.

"No. It'll be good for him. He's been gone over Nat for a while."

"She likes him too," Darcy assured, knowingly. "She's just more careful about people. You don't want to get too close if they're only going to burn you, and she's been burned a lot."

"Sam's not like that."

"No, he isn't, but sometimes you have to figure that out on your own." She shrugged, shaking her head and giving his hip a bump. "So, what are you and Steve going to do tonight? Poker's not as fun with only two people… Well, unless it's strip poker."

His mouth turned up. "You play a lot of strip poker in your time?"

"More than you think," she said, grinning. "College was a time of exploration… and Jell-O shots. And, as you well know from the many times you've had to pick me and Jane up from the bar, Jell-O shots generally means I'm willing to take my clothes off, poker or not."

"You do have a bit of an exhibitionist streak in you," he admitted.

"Exhibitionist. Look at you. Was that from the word-of-the-day calendar I got you? See? Learning can be sexy, too."

He chuckled under his breath, his hand smoothing around to her hip and squeezing, drawing her in against his side. "You know, people change, names for things change, but folks were still having sex in the 40's, and not all of it was done in the bedroom."

Darcy reached out to hit the call button on the elevator as she snorted. "I'm aware. I've noticed how much you like using coat closets when we're at public events."

"You never complain."

"Not true," she argued as they stepped onto the elevator. "I distinctly remember telling you to hurry up last time."

"That's because you have no patience," he reminded, sliding his fingers up her side. "Good things come to those who wait and all that."

"Good things were coming anyway, I just wanted them sooner."

He licked his lips, grinning to himself and shaking his head.

Darcy realized suddenly that they were discussing their late night activities outside of the bedroom and frowned to herself. That was against the rules; well, kind of. It was never explicitly stated, just sort of a known expectation considering the fact that they were surrounded by spies. Besides, things of that naturewere supposed to be forgotten in favor of friendship.

"So you never said what you and Steve were going to do tonight," she said, pinching his side.

He flinched away from her fingers, but leaned back into her when she dropped her hand again. "Nothing. Steve figured, since Sam was out, we should move poker night to tomorrow. Think he's got a date with Maria tonight."

"Maria? Really?" Darcy's brows hiked. "Interesting."

"Yeah? Why's that?"

"Nothing. Just thinking. Maria wouldn't mind dishing the details over lunch, so I'll finally find out if Captain America is as accomplished in bed as he is out of it..."

He snorted. "Been plaguing your mind?"

"The plebs are eager to know," she said, shrugging. "Don't worry, we won't compare notes or anything. As far as Maria knows, you and your hand must be keeping really friendly."

He pursed his lips down at her.

"In her defense, your hands _are_ very friendly."

"Darcy," he muttered.

"Fine, I'll change the subject. What's—"

"Why was Clark in your office?" he interrupted.

She frowned. "No reason, really. He's just been feeling kind of lonely since he joined up. You have to admit, they don't exactly roll out the red carpet around here. I met him earlier when he was trailing behind Steve. Seems nice enough. He asked me out to coffee, hoped I'd show him the ropes or something, since I have a surprisingly good standing around here."

He scoffed.

"Hey. I do! Considering I started out interning under an astrophysicist, I've made a pretty good jump in status since Phil took over."

"You think he wants to be friends?"

"Who? Coulson? We're already friends. I'm thinking about starting a club. Admittedly it's just going to involve watching Supernanny, exchanging taser stories, and drinking copious amounts of wine, but he could use it. This whole Director thing is great and all, but kind of time-consuming. Plus, he misses being in the field and—"

"Not Coulson," he interrupted, looking frustrated. "Clark."

"Oh. What about him?"

"Darcy, he didn't invite you out for coffee because he wants you to show him around SHIELD. If he wanted that, he has Steve."

"Yeah, well, Steve's more intimidating than I am. I mean, sure he's like a golden retriever, all 'aw shucks' when he needs to be, but everybody knows he's bigger than life. That can be daunting for a junior agent…"

He muttered under his breath, in Russian so she wouldn't understand him. She squashed the urge to kick him in the ankle for that.

They left the elevator and started down the hall toward her apartment.

"I don't know what the big deal is. He seems harmless enough. I mean, if you're worried he's a spy, that's why I said we'd meet in the canteen. Plenty of over-paranoid eyes to keep watch over us."

"You don't even like Starbucks. Big-chain companies piss you off."

"Okay, first of all, their coffee sucks and is way overpriced. Second of all, I like the ma and pop shops. Less hipsters." Turning her key in her door, she added, "And third of all—"

"He asked you out on a date."

"What?" She scoffed, pushing her door open. "No, he didn't. I know when I'm being asked out. Robert in Accounting asks me out every time I see him."

"I'm telling you, he was— _Wait_. Robert who?"

Darcy rolled her eyes, tossing her keys toward the bowl on the table by the door and shucked her shoes off. She put her bag on the floor before she walked into the kitchen, spreading her toes to get the cramped feeling out of them. "_Robert_ Robert… I don't know his last name. He's just always been Robert in Accounting." She shrugged, pulling the fridge door open. "I don't feel like cooking tonight. I vote we get Chinese and see what's on Netflix."

Closing the fridge, she looked over at him, still standing by the door, frowning to himself. He'd hung her jacket up and kicked his shoes off, his arms loosely crossed over his chest.

"Chinese?" she asked. "Or pizza? I have beer, too."

"What if he was asking you out?"

Darcy groaned. "Really? Can we move on from that, please?" She untucked her blouse from her skirt and turned, making her way to the hall. "I'm taking a shower. Call for dinner."

Her shower felt like it took a lot longer than usual, and maybe it did. But there was a good reason for that; arguing with Bucky wasn't abnormal. They both had their own opinions on things. Arguing about men, however, was not something that happened. Even if Matt had been asking her out, which he was not, there was no reason to discuss it. One of their rules was not dating outside of each other. If either of them wanted to date, then they were obviously looking for something more than sex and would call 'cut' to the friends with benefits deal. She knew the rules. She'd memorized them. Well, most of them. There were a few that were still up in the air because of the whole 'wow, his fingers are dexterous' thing, but she knew the main points.

And she wasn't even interested in Matt. He was a nice guy. Worked for SHIELD, so no lying necessary. He was Steve's underling, so that was a good sign. Steve wouldn't take on just anybody. So he would be a good add-on to her shortlist of friends and/or acquaintances. She wouldn't giving him the gold seal of approval just yet; she reserved that for the people closest to her, and those people all lived in restricted access apartments that Matt and his coworkers did not have clearance for. But she wouldn't turn down his offer for coffee just because, what? Bucky thought Matt was looking for something more?

Giving her head a shake, she focused on scrubbing the conditioner out of her hair, having already shaved all necessary parts, or not shaved, since she was tired and really didn't care if Bucky liked or disliked her legs being a little prickly. She hopped out of the shower and rubbed herself down with a towel before dressing in her bathrobe and crossing the hall to her bedroom for underwear and a t-shirt. Lost was any interest in primping. Bucky saw her in less all the time and she was more than ready for a night of take-out, TV, and sex.

She was tying her damp hair up on top of her head, walking down the hallway back to the living room, when she called out, "Hey, I thought Steve was dating Sharon."

Bucky was sitting in the corner of the couch, a beer balanced on his knee and an open one on the table for her. "He is," he said, scrolling through her Netflix.

Taking a seat on the far cushion of the couch, she needled, "So Maria is…"

He shrugged one shoulder. "I think he's dating both of them."

"Okay, when you say dating _both_…" Her brows furrowed. "Do you mean alltogether, or he's dating both girls separately?"

"I walked in on Sharon and Maria necking on Steve's couch yesterday, so I'm guessing they're all in it together."

Darcy sat back in her seat. "Huh."

He glanced over at her, an eyebrow raised. "Is that a 'good for them' huh, or an 'I wanna bring someone else into the bedroom, too' huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "Why? You got someone picked out that you wanna add to this thing, Barnes?"

"You're running kind of low on options here; all the women are paired up."

"Who says I'd be bringing a girl in?" She smirked. "Maybe I wanna be in the middle of a meat sandwich. _Maybe _the idea of you kissing boys is hot to me."

He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, since when?"

"Since thirty seconds ago when I gave it some real thought."

He laughed. "Yeah?"

"Yup. You know… now that I'm thinking about it, there was a lot of speculation in my high school history classes about whether _you _and Steve…" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

His nose wrinkled. "I love the guy, but kissing Steve would be like kissing my brother."

"Your really _hot_ brother…" she insisted.

He rolled his eyes. "_Darcy_."

She shrugged. "Just saying."

"Yeah, well, stop saying. And thinking."

"You can't control where this brain goes, Barnes. If it wants to come up with some steamy Steve and Bucky time, it's going to."

"Yeah? What about steamy Darcy and Bucky time, huh?" He reached for her, his hand smoothing up her leg. Before he could get too far, however, there was a knock at the door, drawing their gaze.

"Food already? How long was I in the shower?"

"Maybe it's Clark with Starbucks," he muttered.

Darcy glared at him witheringly before hopping up from the couch and circling around to grab her bag. "Did you get pizza or Chinese?"

"Pizza, and I can pay."

"You paid last time," she said, pulling her wallet out and fingering through her cash.

"Yeah, and you're in your underwear, so guess who's opening the door?"

"If you think I won't show whoever's behind that door these seriously cute panties, you don't know me as well as you think you do."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "You never check the peep-hole anyway," he complained, reaching a hand out toward the gun on the end table as he reached the door.

"Nobody without clearance can get up to this floor," she reminded. "It's always a senior agent that's in the dog house for something."

"People not currently wearing pants don't get to judge me for being cautious."

"The only advice my mother ever gave me was to wear clean underwear in the case of sudden death." Darcy motioned to her underwear. "I feel accomplished."

Bucky shook his head at her and checked the peephole before pulling the door open, keeping his gun in hand even as he dug the money out to pay.

He stuck his wallet back in his pocket before taking the pizza box and stepping back inside, closing and locking the door before replacing his gun and walking over. Darcy grabbed paper towel from the kitchen and a second bottle of beer for him before joining him in the living room. He already had the top open and was pulling out a slice when she plopped down beside him, paper towel on the couch between them.

Taking the largest piece she could find, Darcy folded her legs onto the couch with her and plucked a mushroom off the top to pop into her mouth. "How was work?" she asked as she chewed.

"Good. That team Coulson wants me to advise on an on-going surveillance mission…?"

She nodded.

"They're not bad. Room for improvement, but they're good at taking orders."

"Look at you, getting all leader-like and playing well with others," she teased. "Must bring a tear to Steve's eye."

He snorted, tossing his crust back into the box before grabbing out another slice. "I'm advising, not taking them under my wing… I'm not looking to mentor anybody."

Darcy shrugged. "I don't know. I could see you with a little gaggle of rookies, staring up at you in a mix of admiration and terror…" She grinned. "Your ego would balloon."

Bucky rolled his eyes, but frowned a moment later. "I don't want that."

"What, a big ego? 'Cause lemme tell you, the ship's sailed, my friend…"

He shook his head. "No, rookies looking up to me. I don't want that. Too much pressure. Wouldn't even know who I was supposed to be. The Winter Soldier's got a history, a bad one, so it'd keep them on their toes, but where do I go from that?" He grimaced. "They used to have me train people at HYDRA, and it was like that. Fear motivates, but not always for the right reasons."

Darcy tossed her half-eaten slice of pizza back into the box and shifted over to sit beside him, dropping her head to his shoulder. "This is gonna sound really corny, but… You can be whoever you want to be. You wanna be a terrifying badass, be that. You wanna be a leader or a mentor, you can do that too. Experience comes in a lot of different ways, not all of them good. It's what you do with it and how you use it after that matters. So if you don't want to mentor somebody because you're scared you'll fall into old habits or that they'll fear you instead of respect you, you're wrong. You deserve respect. You just need to respect yourself first."

"You're right… That was corny." He grinned down at her and kissed her forehead. "But I appreciate it."

"Good, because I was seriously channeling Sam there. Consider it the only wisdom you're getting out of me tonight." She patted his chest and shifted back on the couch, grabbing out her pizza slice again and stealing the remote from him. "Rock, paper, scissors for what we watch?"

He held his bionic fist out and said, "On three."

* * *

**author's note**: _this was supposed to be a oneshot, but then it got super long, so I've broken it up into parts. As of right now, it's in four parts, but I'm guessing as I edit through each chapter, it could get a little longer as I expand on some scenes or add dialogue here or there._

_thank you all for reading! I'd love to know your opinion on what's happening, what you think bucky's feelings are and why, and how you feel about matt clark. so please leave a review; they're my lifeblood!_

- **lee | fina**


	2. Chapter 2

**II**.

Darcy's brow furrowed as she woke up, the bed shifting a little under her. She turned her head and blinked a few times before the fuzzy image of Bucky came into focus. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling his t-shirt on over his head. The faint glow of sunrise was peeking through her window and she nearly sighed. Yet another morning he would sneak back to his place. Things as per usual, she reminded herself.

She rubbed her cheek on her pillow and let out a long, sleepy breath, stretching her toes out toward the end of the bed.

He turned his head to see her and she didn't bother closing her eyes.

"Morning," he said.

She hummed.

"You sleeping in today?" he wondered.

She nodded. "Plans later… _way _later, with Tasha and Jane."

"You going out?"

"Bar," she answered, eyes drifting closed.

"SHIELD approved?" he wondered, a thread of tension in his voice.

He didn't like it when she went to bars that weren't approved; he thought they were too dangerous. That didn't stop her from going clubbing occasionally; she was her own person. But she understood his reasons for worrying. At these bars, it meant the clientele was strictly SHIELD employees, which meant the chances of being napped or attacked were low. Well, no, they were lower. SHIELD training didn't make drunk people any less combative. But at least the people they were fighting could take the attack and there were plenty of people around capable of breaking it up.

"Yeah," she told him. "Makes Tasha more comfortable."

Going out for girls' night with Tasha was always fun, having her spend most of the night leery of everybody and constantly on the lookout for a surprise attack was not fun.

"Good." He leaned over then, pressing a kiss to her bare shoulder, scrubbing his chin back and forth until she let out a noise. She could feel his mouth curl up into a smile before he sat back. "I'll be playing poker with Sam and Steve. You need anything, call me."

She hummed again, nodding faintly.

"Have fun." He stood from the bed then and left the room. She listened faintly to his near-silent footsteps as he went, the front door closing behind him, and then she turned over, grabbing up his pillow and sticking it under her cheek. She breathed in the scent of him left behind and drifted back to sleep.

* * *

Drunk Jane was Darcy's favorite Jane. It didn't stop her from talking about science, but it did make her sound more dreamy and wistful than frustrated and focused. Sometimes, she just sighed and said, "_Stars_," while Darcy nodded agreeably, patting her hand before she returned to her conversation with Natasha about the all-female SHIELD team she was training.

"So how many do you think will pass?" Darcy wondered.

"Right now, I wouldn't pass ninety percent of them, but it's early. They have a lot of work ahead of them, but I can see the payoff already. They're smart and strong and we need more female voices in this field."

"Agreed. Actually, I think I met a few of them the other day. They dropped by the office. One's tall, brunette, scar over her left eyebrow… Ringing any bells?"

"Jayati," Natasha said, nodding as she stirred the straw in her drink. Sitting back in her seat, she shrugged. "She's one of the better recruits. Above average test scores, great tactical skills, good under pressure… Ego, though. I'm going to have to work with her on that."

Darcy nodded, taking a sip of her own drink and frowning as she found only half-melted ice. She waved a hand to Nyssa, the bartender, to catch her attention and then raised her drink. Nyssa nodded at her, reaching for a glass, and Darcy turned her attention back to Natasha. "I heard you got Mosh this time, too. What'd she fail on her last run-through?"

"Much like someone else I know, she's not good at taking orders. She always thinks she knows better…"

"Does she?"

Natasha frowned. "It's not a matter of being right or wrong. It's being able to trust that when you tell someone to do something or be somewhere, you know you can count on them to follow through. Mosh is smart, she's got the skills to go somewhere with that, but if she can't follow point of command, she's useless to us."

"So how do are you going to show her that?" Darcy wondered, brow furrowed. "I mean, you can tell her that, but firsthand knowledge is probably better, right?"

Natasha's eyes narrowed. "What are you suggesting?"

"Last year, Hill had those surprise training ops, where even the newbs didn't know it was all a set-up." Darcy grabbed up a handful of peanuts and popped a few into her mouth "Get a few people in on it and when Mosh inevitably tries to do things her own way, show her just how wrong an op can go when one of the little chess pieces doesn't move where you want it to."

Natasha grinned slowly, all teeth. "I like it."

"Of course you do." Darcy snorted, rolling her eyes. "A little bit of you likes terrorizing your agents."

"You call it terrorizing, I call it preparing them for the inevitable shit-storm coming their way."

As Nyssa appeared at the table, handing Darcy her refill and dropping another down for Natasha, Darcy raised her glass up for cheers and Natasha clinked hers against it.

"Not that I don't agree with what you're saying, but what about the science fields?" Jane suddenly piped up, a few napkins in front of her with various half-coherent scribbles all over them. "We need more women interested in science and astrophysics and _science_."

"You should visit high schools; that can be your campaign slogan." Natasha hid her smile behind the rim of her glass.

"Science with an exclamation mark," Darcy agreed, nodding.

At Jane's pout, Darcy patted her shoulder. "Hey, I'm not disagreeing. I just think you need to be a little less nose-deep in your piña coladas before you get too enthusiastic."

"I _love _piña coladas," Jane moaned, dropping her chin to her arm.

"Yeah, we know…" Natasha said, raising an eyebrow at the three empty glasses Jane had already plowed through.

Darcy's lips parted to comment on the fact that Jane was totally justified in letting loose, when a cleared throat caught her attention. Her head swiveled, landing on a familiar smiling face. "Matt. Hey…"

"Darcy," he said, nodding at her. "Thought I heard your voice over here, just wanted to say hi, introduce myself…" He cast his eyes around the table.

"Oh, uh, this is Dr. Jane Foster, astrophysicist extraordinaire, and this is Natasha Romanoff, professional at, well, everything… Jane, Tasha, this is Junior Agent Matt Clark. Steve's training him," she introduced.

Jane raised her piña colada before returning her focus to it and taking a long sip. "Nice to meet you, Clark," she said then. "Tell me, how do you feel about the stars?"

"I could see them a lot better where I grew up. I think I have a pretty healthy appreciation for them," he answered kindly.

"Good." Jane turned then, looking to Darcy. "You know what?" Not bothering to wait for an answer, she continued, "Puente Antigua, best star gazing _ever_."

"Probably a somewhat biased opinion, but I won't argue with it," Darcy said.

"Did Captain Rogers tell you about this bar?" Natasha wondered, peering up at Matt, her face carefully blank.

"No, actually, it was a few other agents I met in the canteen." He motioned back to his table, where a group of fellow junior agents sat. "They said this was the place to be, so I thought I'd give it a try."

Natasha hummed, still staring at him. "And how do you know Darcy?"

"Steve introduced us. Kind of. I bumped into them on the way back to my office," Darcy explained with a shrug. "Since he's new, he asked for tips on how to make friends."

"He seems to have plenty," Natasha moved, casting her eyes back toward the table he came from.

"Can never have too many friends," Matt said, grinning at her boyishly.

Natasha merely raised an eyebrow before turning and saying, "Jane, didn't you want to dance?"

Excited, Jane pushed her drink away. "Uh, _yes!_" she exclaimed, already starting to shift her way out of the table. "Darcy, come on, you get first pick."

"That's a heavy, but well-deserved responsibility," Darcy said, lifting her chin and sighing dramatically.

"Actually, Darcy, if you have a minute, I was hoping we could talk…" Matt suggested.

"Oh, uh, sure." Darcy waved the other two women off. "Go on, I'll catch up on song number two."

"If you're certain…" Natasha said slowly.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Go ahead."

Natasha pressed her lips into a frown, but nodded, hooking her arm with Jane's and leading her out onto the small dance floor by the jukebox.

Matt took a seat then, sliding in close, but not too close, so they could comfortably hear each other over the music and conversation of everyone else.

"So? What'd you need to talk to me about? And please…" She held a hand up. "Please tell me it isn't about Coulson. Because if you're looking for a meeting with the Big Guy, hoops must be jumped through."

"No, no, it's nothing to do with the Director," he said, shaking his head. "Actually, I was just hoping we'd get a chance to talk. Don't get me wrong, the guys are nice, but a little stiff."

"Well, that's what you get for signing up to work for the government," she mused. "Speaking of, what made you sign on with SHIELD anyway? Why not the FBI or CIA? I mean, I'm not saying they're better, but they've managed to keep their shady underbelly well under-wraps."

He shrugged. "I started out with the FBI originally, and it wasn't bad. But… I don't know. Despite everything I read about SHIELD, I still liked what they stood for originally. And I like to think they're rebuilding toward that."

"They are," she agreed loyally. "Hey, I can't stand up for what they did in the years post-Peggy Carter; there was a lot of corruption there. But the people who have a say now, they would definitely agree more with her original idea and I think they'll make sure it keeps up."

"Well, just taking it on what I know of Captain Rogers, I have high hopes that you're right."

"Steve's a good guy," she agreed. "He's not the only one pulling for SHIELD to be better than it was, but he's definitely got a hand in the apple pie."

He grinned then, ducking his head a little. "So, what about you? You said before that you signed on for the pay, but… There's gotta be more of a story there."

"Sure, I guess. What, you haven't read all of SHIELD's released files?" she wondered. "My story's pretty much already out there for anybody to see."

"Maybe it is, but files don't tell the whole story."

She looked over at him thoughtfully and then considered the truth of his words. On paper, Bucky was exactly what he didn't want to be. He was who people would fear. But those same people didn't know him outside of those files, they didn't know the person he was, or how his eyes wrinkled at the corners when he laughed, or how he had so many different smiles that she'd long categorized into levels of happiness. Files were facts, sure, but they tended to overlook the human factor.

So she offered Matt a smile and said, "What do you wanna know?"

She wouldn't tell him everything; she barely knew him. But there were plenty of things about her she could share just as she would with anybody she was beginning a friendship with. And that was what she was aiming for. He was right, earlier, when he told Natasha he could never have too many friends. She had a close-knit group as it was, but it couldn't hurt to add one more. Matt probably wouldn't be invited to dinner with the Avengers, but they could still meet up in the hallways, talk about how it was working under Steve, see how his fellow junior agents were fairing. Sounded simple to her.

* * *

Simple turned into a good hour and a half of talking before Natasha and Jane returned to the table, one more than a little exhausted and the other texting on her phone. Just as they took their seats, Matt left to get refills on their drinks.

"He's still here," Natasha noted, taking her seat on Darcy's left.

"You didn't dance with us," Jane complained.

"No," Darcy admitted, "but I did ask Matt to get you a water, so…"

"All right, semi-forgiven," Jane muttered.

Natasha was tracking Matt at the bar as she said, "How much do you know about him?"

"Well, he grew up with a single mom and two sisters. He played soccer in high school and originally planned to join up with the FBI. He's nice, funny, likes long walks on the beach, and candlelit dinners... Why? Did you wanna run a background check? Because I'm pretty sure Steve would've said something if he thought he was sketchy."

"Maybe, maybe not." Natasha turned back to her, gaze searching Darcy's face. "Do you like him?"

"Sure. He's a good guy."

She tipped her head. "You know what I mean…"

Darcy sighed. "I do know, but it's not like that. Seriously."

Natasha stared at her a long moment and then turned her head minutely as Matt started toward them. "Does _he _know that?"

She didn't get a chance to answer as Matt stopped in front of them, doling out drinks and smiling.

Natasha smiled suddenly then and looked up at Matt warmly. "Why don't you tell us how it is working with Captain Rogers?" she suggested, her voice far more friendly than it usually was.

Matt looked at her, a little surprised, but took a seat beside her. "Uh, sure, what do you want to know?"

"_Everything_," Natasha said, offering a shark-like smile.

The rest of the time spent at the bar together was mostly Natasha grilling Matt for any information she could get. When it was just about midnight, Darcy decided it was time to leave and propped a boozy, sleepy Jane up, arm around her waist as she helped her outside.

Natasha followed, taking up Jane's other side, and Darcy waved goodbye to Matt before they slipped out of the bar.

"Not a bad night," she mused as they made their way back to the tower.

"Could have been better," Natasha said.

"Yeah? Maybe if an attractive hero with detachable wings was around, huh?"

Natasha didn't bother hiding her smile and raised an eyebrow in her direction. "Дорогая, if he were here, the fun we would be having would not be encouraged in public."

Darcy laughed, her head falling back. "Details or it never happened."

Smirking at her, Natasha said, "_Happily_."

* * *

After dropping Jane off in her apartment, Darcy joined Natasha's in hers for a nightcap and some girl talk about Sam's adept skills in bed. Because apparently their first date led to an overflow of sexual tension that could not be tamed, or so Darcy liked to describe it. Natasha's description was somehow less flamboyant and entirely more descriptive. In any case, Darcy thought she might just clap the next time she saw Sam and congratulate him on his prowess. Which wouldn't be too hard since she was meeting him for brunch tomorrow. In the meantime, however, she left Natasha's apartment and took the elevator down to her own, heels in hand. She walked down the hall, dancing off-beat to a tune she had stuck in her head, and went inside, looking forward to a nice shower and some shut-eye. And maybe some cold pizza, since her stomach was rumbling.

Dropping her heels and keys off by the door, she decided to have the pizza first, and raided her fridge while she thumbed through her phone. Three new messages, one of which was just Coulson telling her that he was officially taking Sunday off – _hallelujah_ – and that she shouldn't need to be called for any reason, so he would see her on Monday. Another was from her mother, nagging her to call more often and ranting for a good ten minutes about how her cousin kept borrowing money that he never paid back. Finally, the last message was from an obviously drunk Bucky.

"Darce, hey. It's… late. It's really late. I just got home. Which reminds me, tell me to wear sleeves next time; I'm ninety percent sure Sam was using my arm to see my cards… Anyway, it's late, did I already say that? And you're not answering, but I checked with Jarvis, and you're still out. So I hope you're having fun, and that you're still at the SHIELD bar and not one of those shitty clubs with the awful music. Sam said he had a breakfast or lunch thing with you tomorrow, but I was hoping we could get together after. Maybe we could see a picture or go to that museum you like or just, I don't know, go for a walk. I think I'm going stir-crazy in the tower and I know we just saw each other this morning, but I miss you. So call me after, we'll make plans..." There was a long pause before, "Я люблю тебя, кукла. Сладких снов." And then a dial tone.

Darcy bit her lip, smiling to herself, played the message twice more, and then hopped off her counter to go take her shower and get some sleep.

* * *

Sam rolled his eyes when, as he walked into the coffee shop, Darcy whistled and started clapping for him.

He put his hands up and nodded. "Yeah, all right, keep it up."

Wiggling her eyebrows at him, she retook her seat. "I already ordered for you since you never get anything different."

"I'm a man who knows what he likes," he defended, taking a seat at the table across from her.

"Well, apparently you're also a man who _gets _what he likes… You and Natasha? I'd say 'spill' but she already told me a _lot_ more than I ever wanted to know about you."

He laughed, ducking his head down to hide the massive grin spread across his mouth. "It's good, you know. Long time comin', or that's how I feel anyway."

"It is," she agreed, picking up her mug of coffee for a sip. "You know, I was always rooting for you two crazy kids. So if this leads to some long-term, walk down the aisle, I expect to be thanked for my part in it."

He snorted, waving a hand at her. "Whatever. Speaking of romances, though… Nat texted me, said some junior agent spent half his night chatting you up at the bar…" He stared at her curiously, brows hiked. "You wanna tell me what that's about?"

Darcy rolled her eyes. "You guys are being way too overprotective about this. He's a nice guy. He keeps it up, I might elevate him from acquaintance to friend."

"Yeah, and is that the last stop on that ladder, or can he climb higher?" Sam wondered.

She shook her head. "Trust me, I don't need any more men in my life. I think I'm all testosteroned out... Which reminds me, Bucky said he thinks you were cheating at poker last night? Something about using his arm to see his cards…?"

"That guy is _paranoid_," he said, but then grinned slowly, "for good reason." At Darcy's arched eyebrow, he laughed. "It was too easy. Besides, it was his own fault. He was distracted."

Darcy tipped her head thoughtfully. "That doesn't sound like him..."

"Steve mentioned some new guy he's been working with and Bucky spent half the game asking about him, what his qualifications were, where he came from, why Coulson thought Steve should work with him personally. You know how he gets. Protective as hell. Anyway, his head was on that, so it made the game a lot easier than usual… And don't gimme that look either; he bleeds me dry every damn week. Consider it justified."

Darcy rolled her eyes. "Sure, whatever you have to tell yourself." She frowned down at her coffee a moment, debating with herself, before eventually saying, "The, uh, agent I was hanging out with last night, he's the one Steve's training… Matt Clark."

Sam's brows hiked, mouth falling open. "_Oh_…" He snorted. "That explains a lot."

Her nose wrinkled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Sam gave her his patented 'don't bullshit me' expression. "Uh, that the only other person besides Steve that Barnes gets protective about is _you_."

The waitress arrived then, putting down their food for them, and Darcy focused on unrolling her cutlery before she said, "We're friends. And Bucky's suspicious of everyone. As far as he's concerned, everybody outside of the immediate circle is one mistake away from being the enemy."

"Yeah, and it looks like this kid's mistake was thinking he could hit on you," Sam told her, snorting as he scooped up a bite of scrambled eggs.

"Okay, first of all, _no_. I don't need somebody, especially a man, moderating who I talk to. Secondly, it's really not like that. Matt's a nice guy. And if I have to tell one more person that we're just friends, I may taser them to get the point across. And thirdly, Bucky—"

"Is in love with you and has no idea how to tell you."

Darcy choked on air. "Wh-_What?_" she exclaimed. "Did you hit your head? He is _not_—"

Sam merely stared at her knowingly. "Darcy, you guys have been fucking like rabbits for how long now?"

"That's _not_— We're not— I— I mean— Okay, fine, how did you even _know _that?" she whisper-shouted, leaning forward as her eyes darted around.

Sam shrugged. "Wasn't that hard to figure out. He was a grade-A asshole, what, nine months ago? Tense and pissed off, smallest thing set him off. Then he shows up after having dinner at your place, never seen him more relaxed. Been that way since. So? What is it? Little friends with benefits thing you two got going, and feelings just snuck right on in, or what?"

Darcy sighed, rubbing a hand over her forehead. "Yes. Kind of. I don't… I don't even know who suggested it, really. It just sort of… progressed. But there are no _feelings_; that's the whole point. No strings."

"Listen, I hate to break it to you, but someone's gonna have to clue you in… There's a _lot _of strings, 'cause that boy's got serious feelings for you."

Darcy scrubbed a hand down her face and groaned. "No. He really doesn't." She shook her head. "It's _just _sex for him. If he's protective, it's because we're friends, not because he has romantic feelings for me. People can have sex without falling in love."

He nodded. "Yeah, they can, happens all the time, and there's nothing wrong with it._ This _is not one of those times." Leaning forward, he rested his forearms on the table and raised his eyebrows. "Darcy, you were half in love with him before you two started doing this. Think about it. You talked about him all the time, you planned out elaborate movie nights to help him get up to date, you learned a ton of recipes you thought would help him acclimate, not just from the 40's, but you got Jarvis to translate Russian cookbooks for you… What'd you think was gonna happen when you two started sleeping together? That those feelings would just… _go away?_"

Darcy bit down on her lip, hard, and dropped her gaze to her plate. "I didn't… I mean sure, maybe on some level I knew I cared about him more than a friend should, but I didn't know I cared _this _much. And yeah, when we started sleeping together, those feelings grew into something I'm _completely _aware is more than a little out of control. But how I feel and how _he_ feels is completely different."

"_Why?_"

She frowned, not understanding.

"Why don't you think he loves you too?" he wondered, his voice a little gentler.

"It's just… He's so good at it, at flipping that switch. We hang out and we're just friends again and nothing changes for him. He leaves early enough that he's not _really _staying over. He doesn't want to be there, not long term." She took a deep breath, her mouth trembling. "I'm comfortable. I'm safe and Steve-approved and nowhere near a threat, so it makes sense to him. It's _easy_ for him. So please, I already know I'm in over my head, don't get my hopes up…"

Sam stared at her a long moment, his mouth set in a firm, disagreeable frown. "One thing," he said, "And then I won't bring it up. 'Cause you're right, you don't need a man making your decisions for you or weighing in on your love-life…"

She nodded for him to continue.

"I get that from where you're standing, it looks really simple. But from where I'm standing… Darcy, you don't see how he looks at you. If you asked me, a year ago, if I thought getting together with Barnes was a good idea, I would'a flat out told you no and suggested you get your head checked out… But now, how far he's come, how hard he's worked at being better, how he is with you… It makes sense. You two make sense."

She let his works sink in for a moment before telling him, "That sounded like more than one thing."

He grinned then, grabbing up a slice of toast from his plate. "It was interconnected, see. So it counts."

Darcy rolled her eyes, snorting at him. "Whatever."

His smile softened. "I just want you to be happy, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know." She reached over and stole his other half-slice of toast and grinned as she tore off a bite with her teeth.

"Toast-stealing little thief… Try and help a girl out, she goes and turns on me like that," he muttered teasingly.

Laughing under her breath, she shook her head, and grabbed up her fork. "Subject change. How much money did you fleece from the elderly last night, and does this mean you're buying brunch…?"

* * *

"Get your elbow up," Hill told her, panting a little as they circled each other on the mats.

"Always with the elbows," Darcy muttered. "Maybe my elbow's comfortable there. Maybe it's depressed and doesn't like you pointing out that it's down. Have you thought about that? You're being insensitive."

Maria rolled her eyes, but her mouth twitched at the corner. "I'm not here to be sensitive. I'm here to make sure you stay alive when you're inevitably attacked." She lunged forward then, throwing a right punch that Darcy ducked, following it with a left jab that landed, hitting Darcy's shoulder. "If you kept your elbow up, you might've been able to block that."

Stretching her arm back, Darcy winced. "Maybe I like the bruises. They make me feel more street."

Sighing, Maria shook her head. "How 'street' do you feel regularly?"

"That depends on what playlist I have on…" She raised her fists again. "All right, my elbow's up. I'm ready for attack."

"You know they won't give you a chance to get ready, right?" Hill reminded, but still came at her. She threw a left fist toward Darcy's face that was blocked, but her right arched toward Darcy's ribs, grazing them as she manage to twist her body out of the way at the last second. Maria didn't slow or pause, her firsts flying in precise movements while her feet ate up the space between them. Darcy forgot any smart quips before they had a chance to completely manifest, instead focusing her energy on avoiding Maria's skilled attack. Still, in the end, she wound up on her back when Maria fell into a crouch and kicked her legs out from beneath her.

Panting, Darcy stared at Maria's smirking face. "Smug looks good on you," she admitted.

Maria shrugged one shoulder. "You're getting better."

"Between you and Natasha, if I don't put up a good fight when some asshole tries to gank me, I think I'll actually die of shame."

Snorting, Maria stood and offered Darcy a hand to help her up off the mats. "Again?" she asked.

Bent over, hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath, Darcy nodded. "Yeah. Just gimme a sec to make out with my water bottle until my throat stops burning."

"Sure. We should focus on your footwork this time. You're moving faster, but sometimes you try to see where you're going and that makes you vulnerable."

"Three years of lousy gymnastics and look at where I am now… I need to write a strongly-worded letter to my mother for putting me through that," Darcy said, shaking her head before she guzzled her water.

"Will that be on SHIELD stationary again?" Maria wondered, grinning.

Darcy sniffed. "Of course. It helps get my message across."

Rolling her eyes, Maria opened her mouth to argue, but a buzzing at her hip caught her attention. With a sigh, she reached down and checked the color blinking at her. Frowning, she grabbed up her things. "Sorry, Darcy, I have to go. We'll pick this up on Wednesday, all right?" she called to her as she jogged toward the doors leading out of the gym.

"Looking forward to it. Hopefully my bruises will be gone by then," Darcy shouted back.

She didn't have to see Maria to know she was grinning.

Falling back against the mats, Darcy starfished, taking a few minutes to let herself relax. She knew she'd have to stretch and shower, and soon, but after an hour workout with Maria, she felt she deserved it. She cracked an eye open after a minute and searched out her bag, wanting her iPod, but found it entirely too far away. With a grunt, she glared at it a long moment, and then, taking a deep breath, started to roll herself across the mats.

When she heard a low, familiar laugh, she came to a stop on her stomach and rested her chin on her stacked hands. "How majestic did I just look?" she wondered.

"Almost too much," Bucky answered, coming over to stand in front of her.

Darcy rolled over onto her back and stared up at him staring down at her, some of his hair falling loose from the ponytail he kept it in. "What're you doing down here?"

He shrugged. "Saw Maria run by, figured you were done early. Thought I'd see if you wanted to get something to eat before we went to the movie."

She hummed. "Something greasy and full of calories and that makes this whole workout pointless?"

He held his hands out for her to take. "Not pointless. You'll know what to do in an attack. You can't always rely on your taser." He pulled her up to her feet and twirled her around to face him, his hands settling low on her hips.

Darcy's brows hiked stubbornly. "On the contrary, I think I could… If you think about it, half of Thor's shtick is electrocuting people."

Bucky's lips twitched as he shook his head. "Pretty sure it's a little more than that."

"But electrocuting bad guys plays a part, admit it…" She turned, grabbing up her duffel bag and hung the strap over her shoulder as she started toward the locker room.

Bucky's hand fell to the small of her back as he walked with her. "It helps," he muttered. "But he's got a lot of other skills that are just as important."

"Right, but _technically_, with just the whole 'wielding electricity' thing, he could probably take out a lot of bad guys…" She pushed the door open to the locker room, looking back at him.

"Harnessing energy through Mjolnir is a little different from your taser, Stark modified or not," he pointed out.

"Ugh, I can't talk to you when you get logical on me, Barnes." She walked toward her locker and focused on her combination for a moment, while he took a seat on the bench behind her. Swinging the door open, she grabbed out her shampoo, conditioner, and body wash from the top shelf, along with a bright orange loofah, passing them all back to him to put on the bench. "You know this isn't a co-ed locker room, right?"

"Looks like an empty locker room to me," he said, offering her a grin when she looked back at him.

Darcy rolled her eyes, grabbing out a towel before she went through her gym bag for her change of clothes and a pair of flats. Raising her foot up to the bench, she untied the laces on each of her sneakers before tossing them into the bottom of her locker. When she reached for the bottom of her work out shirt, however, Bucky's hands were already there. He squeezed her hips before he stood, his fingers taking the fabric and drawing it up her body slowly.

"You know I probably stink, right?" she said, ducking her head and raising her arms as he pulled the shirt off completely, dropping it to the bench before he tucked his bionic fingers in the waist of her pants. "Like sweat and never ending defeat."

"That's what the shower's for," he said, peeling her pants down.

"So we're sharing now, huh?" She arched an eyebrow, but wiggled her hips side to side to help as he bent, rolling the fabric down her legs. Standing in her mismatched cotton underwear and sports bra, she stared down at him, his mouth turned up on one side as he stared back.

"I hear it's polite," he said, leaning in to press a kiss to her belly button.

Darcy bit her lip, watching his mouth move over her stomach, sucking kisses everywhere he reached, while his hands skimmed down her outer thighs before dragging his fingertips gently up the front. He skimmed them beneath her underwear teasingly before smoothing his palms around and cupping them around her ass, squeezing and kneading. He pressed one more kiss to her navel before he stood again, sliding his hands up her back as he buried his face at her neck and nipped her collar bone.

"You know, I'm noticing an equality issue here when it comes to clothing…" Darcy reached for the bottom of his shirt and gave it a tug.

He pressed a kiss to her neck before he leaned back and reached an arm behind him, grabbing the back of his shirt and yanking it easily over his head. Darcy bit her lip as she took a moment to admire him. As his hands fell to the button of his jeans, Darcy skimmed out of her underwear and stripped off her sports bra, dropping them on the pile of her clothes before grabbing up her shower supplies and walking to the stalls, her hips swaying.

She was nearly at the showers, when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against him, her back against his warm, bare front. Darcy grinned, tipping her head back so it fell against his shoulder. "You know anybody could walk in here, right?" she reminded.

He grabbed up her yellow loofah from the supplies in her arms and shrugged. "Then you better keep it down, Lewis."

She wrinkled her nose at him. "Excuse you. I'm not the only loud one, thank you very much… You swear loud enough you'd wake the whole damn building up if it wasn't for the soundproofing." Her brows hiked. "I'll get Jarvis to play it back if you don't believe me."

He shook his head, grinning. "You have a talented mouth, what can I say?"

She snorted. "A lot of incredibly filthy things, evidently."

He laughed and stopped them in front of a shower stall, reaching past her to turn the tap on. "Your mouth's not too saintly either, if I remember correctly."

"Yeah?"

He backed her into the stall, taking the bottles from her hands to put on the shelf. "Yeah."

She raised an eyebrow at him and smirked. "_Prove it_."

* * *

What should have been a short shower ended up taking a lot longer, not that Darcy was complaining, really. If she had to rank the men she'd been with, and she often did when she was bored, Bucky topped her list every time. It wasn't a huge list, but it had some very memorable experiences added to it that she could look back on fondly. Well, most of them. There were a few, like her first high school boyfriend, the guy in her freshman history class in college, and that hipster she met at her former favorite coffee shop that were not so memorable. In fact, if she could scrub her brain of those not-so-awesome sexual encounters, she totally would. For a variety of reasons, ranging from complete inexperience ("Your clit? What's a clit?") to selfish assholes ("Can't you finish yourself off? I'm tired.") to safe words really fucking _matter _("Come on, I didn't hear you… I thought you liked it…"). She wondered briefly if Coulson actually had a memory wiping device that could help her with that…

After showering and getting dressed, they left the gym and caught a cab over to one of her favorite restaurants. The movie they were going to see didn't start for a good our and a half, so they had plenty of time to waste still.

"Oh, hey, I talked to Sam… He totally used your arm to cheat, by the way," she said, flipping through the menu even though she'd long picked out her favorites and already had a good idea of what she was going to order. "Personally, I suggest some form of revenge, which I would be happy to lend a hand with."

Bucky looked over at her from the tops of his eyes, his mouth turned up. "Shouldn't you be telling me to let it go…? He's one of your best friends."

She nodded. "Jane pissed me off last week, so I bumped Sam up to top spot, but then Jane did her mopey, scientist thing at the bar last night, so I told her she was my number one again." She waved a dismissive hand. "Anyway, friends pull pranks on each other all the time. It's a sign of affection. Like when I put itching powder in Steve's underwear drawer. It was a gesture of deep, platonic love."

He blinked at her, an eyebrow raised. "He's still trying to figure out how you got in there and I don't think he was feeling too loved when he was scratching himself for three days straight."

"Well, in my defense I thought his super-serum would make it wear off quickly, so I was liberal with how much I added…"

Bucky snorted. "Not much of a defense."

"What, you don't think it'll hold up in court?" Sighing exaggeratedly, she leaned back in her seat. "Well, at least tell me I can count on you to break me out of jail for causing bodily discomfort to a national treasure."

"Sure. Break you out and we can Bonnie and Clyde it," he told her, nodding as he reached over and grabbed a few packs of sugar to pour into his mug of coffee.

"Look at you, making pop culture references. I feel so proud."

He snorted. "I was alive when they were getting famous. Read all about it in the paper."

"Oh yeah," she muse, before shaking her head. "What was that like? The movies made it sound romantic… Guess it was, in its own way."

"Yeah?" He scoffed. "In love or not, she followed him right into an early grave. Sounds more reckless than romantic."

Darcy rolled her eyes. "We all die eventually, at least they died together and had fun before they went."

He hummed noncommittally. "You planning on robbing any banks, Darcy?"

"If I was, you'd help me and you know it." She grinned. "Besides, if I had you for a partner, we'd last a lot longer."

"Yeah?" He smirked, resting his elbows on the table and peering at her curiously. "How long?"

"We might just outrun them completely… Retire on some sandy beach somewhere, watch the story go viral with theories on where we went and how we pulled it off. It'd be great." She grabbed up her soda and took a pull from the straw. "I'd offer to bring Sam and Steve in on it, but I feel like their morals would get in the way."

Bucky chuckled. "Yeah, I can't see Steve offering to knock over a bank, not even for you."

She snapped her fingers in a 'too bad' gesture and shrugged. "Looks like it's just you and me, Buck. An adventure to write home about, except not, because they could use that evidence against us later, if they ever catch up."

He snorted. "I'll keep that in mind."

The waitress made her way over to their table then to take their orders and collect their menus before she took her leave once more.

Darcy reached up to pull her beanie off, dropping it on her bag on the chair beside her, and tied her hair up with the elastic on her wrist. It was still damp, despite Bucky taking a couple towels to it in an effort to soak up the excess water. She blamed it on her mother for passing on the thick hair gene.

"We should do this more often," she mused.

"What? Get lunch?" he wondered.

"No, get out of the tower more. After the movie, we should go for a walk in the park, get ice cream…" She nodded.

His mouth turned up on one side with amusement. "Haven't even eaten had lunch yet and you're already planning what you're gonna eat in a few hours."

"Planning for ice cream is always recommended," she dismissed.

"We can go out more if you want. Gets rough sticking around the tower all the time." He shrugged. "It worked in the beginning, when I was still paranoid about everything."

"You still rock paranoia with the best of them," she teased, winking at him when he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I found the tin hat you put in my room," he said, licking his lips to hide his smile.

"Put it in perspective…" she suggested. "You should be happy you got that and not itching powder on your junk."

"I'll keep that in mind, doll."

"That's all I ask." She stirred the ice around in her coke with her straw. "Hey, did you get the invite to that benefit Pepper's throwing?"

"The one on Thursday that she sent out last month?" he clarified.

"Yeah, well, don't judge, if it's not flagged a priority for work, I tend to ignore it. Anyway, she said it was mandatory. Phil's already getting citations ready for everybody who doesn't show. My hand cramped up filling them out on Friday."

Bucky nodded. "Pretty sure one of those citations is gonna have my name on it, why?"

"I have to go. Phil says I have too many citations already and it sets a bad example if I'm handing them out when I didn't even go myself." She waved a dismissive hand. "Anyway, I want company, so you should dust off your finest suit. If you're nice, I'll buy you a boutonniere."

Bucky frowned, his head falling back. "Darce, you know I hate those things… Always feel like everybody's staring at me, waiting for me to snap and kill someone." He slumped in his chair a little. "And Stark always has reporters there; I clam up when they ask me questions."

She chewed her lip a long moment and nodded. He did hate those things, and he had good reason to. While the inner circle was good to him, acknowledging his discomfort and trying to help him through it, they couldn't keep other people from acting like assholes. And while most people didn't have the balls to actually go toe-to-toe with Bucky, that didn't stop them from talking shit and staring at him.

"Fine, you're right, you don't have to go," she told him, sighing rather dramatically. "I'll third wheel Tasha and Sam or something."

He stared at her, his brow knotted. "You sure?"

She smiled lightly. It wasn't easy for him to admit when he didn't like doing things; usually he shut down or just tried to avoid it. But he was getting better at using his words and, just because she had to go, didn't mean he should have to. "Yeah. I'll spend most of the night dancing with strangers and getting too familiar with the free bar. It's fine."

"All right…" He relaxed again, sitting up in his chair. His legs stretched out beneath the table then, one of his ankles hooking around hers, and he gave it a shake. "You have fun last night with the girls?" he wondered.

Darcy brightened, happy to talk about Jane and Natasha, and to fill Bucky in on the details of Natasha and Sam, even if he wasn't at all interested in their relationship. Darcy had been a not so subtle supporter of Sam and Natasha getting together, so she was happy to share as many details as humanly possible. As she talked, she remembered Matt showing up at the bar and spending a significant amount of time with them. But, given Bucky's previous reaction to him, she decided to leave out anything to do with him. They were having a nice afternoon and she didn't feel like spoiling it over something dumb. Still, it sparked an idea. Since he was a junior agent, Matt probably wouldn't risk a citation, meaning he would almost definitely be at the gala. Maybe she wouldn't have to third wheel Natasha and Sam after all.

* * *

**author's note**: _woo, glad to see people are interested in seeing where this is going. a lot happening in this chapter, some natasha and darcy, darcy and maria, as well as some darcy and sam friendship, which is so, so much fun to write. quite a big declaration sam made too, so i'm curious about what you all think of that. a number of you have mentioned that you think steve knows what's going on with darcy and bucky, and that will be touched on later, because i do plan on writing from bucky's pov soon._

_i hope you're all still enjoying this. thank you all so much for reviewing last chapter. _

_thank you for reading! please review; they're my lifeblood._

**- lee | fina**


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